The present invention relates to informational or product labelling, and more specifically to apparatus for display of multiple product labels.
In many industrial or consumer products, product labelling of model number, serial number, and/or other information is required or desired for a variety of reasons, such as for ease of reference by service or maintenance personnel. Some products are assembled from multiple components or subassemblies, each having their own identifier, such as model number or serial number.
There are many typical approaches to labelling such products. One is referred to as “over labelling”, where an assembly or “parent” product label is placed directly over a subassembly or “child” label, obscuring or destroying the child label in the process. In this case, information regarding the child is lost, which can be problematic for import/export certifications, maintenance, and cancelled or returned orders. Another typical solution is to apply parent labels in addition to child or component labels, often adjacent to each other. This often creates confusion for the customer and requires an increased area of product surface for labelling, that then may not be used for other product functions. A third approach applies only a parent label to the product, and assumes certain child components are part of the assembly. This approach is problematic when components are added or removed after the parent label is applied, since the label no longer represents the actual configuration of the parent.